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Sanders and marijuana

Presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders will announce his support Wednesday for removing marijuana from a list of the most dangerous drugs outlawed by the federal government — a move that would free states to legalize it without impediments from Washington.

OK, Republican candidates. Here’s your chance. Set yourself apart from the pack and announce your support for legalization.

I’m all for Bernie removing cannabis as a controlled substance. That is where it should end. It has no business being there in the first place. This crap of doing it to free states is complete bullshit. No different from Nixon arbitrarily and politically determining the laws of physics. Ganja does not fit as a controlled substance. Physics has stated it is safer than many over the counter products, including aspirin and cigarettes. So it makes no sense to let states define its properties anymore than letting the feds. Would we have states determine the boiling point of water, or the freezing point? Of coarse not. So goferit Bernie. Then leave it alone for the entrepreneurs and customers. We are showing the world in CA and CO that we don’t need no stinkin’ bodges or political parties. Just the facts ma’am.

Yeah but, Alcohol and Tobacco have their own asterisk/exemption spot in the CSA.

So, placing it there next to them – would presumably be much more expedient than attempting to remove it from the CSA entirely.

“Rescheduling” it = moving it to some other Schedule (other than 1), means justifying and explaining the move in clinical/medical sense, and that could be argued until the end of time.

If I’m not mistaken moving it to the “spot ” where alcohol and tobacco are would be exempting it via a ‘grandfather-clause’, meaning that we wouldn’t be forced/subject to the hassles and/ot threats of future rescheduling.
It should include plant matter & preparations of plant matter aka edibles.

I’m still amazed that for the Doctors and all involved, zombie-fying levels of Phenobarbital was perfectly acceptable for little Charlotte Figi…

But, For the love of God, don’t get her a little stoned from regular ‘THC-included’ cannabis!

“OMG, what-a-fucking-nightmare…”

Seriously, the people involved in Sanjay Gupta’s first documentary Weed, (Seemingly) HAD TO APPEAR – that level of “shocked & appalled” by the mere possibility of that occurring?!

WTH, is wrong with people and the world, Those who made that attitude necessary?

Or the long-held idea that Cannabis is only acceptable for use by terminally ill patients.
But for someone with arthritis, or muscle spasms, or a migraine, or depression, or a just a rotten mood – It’s somehow a terrible threat to their health and society in general?

Some people say, “Amotivational Syndrome” – I say “Easily Occupied” , maybe ‘easy to please’, or Easily amused by the simple things and a fairly simple life.

Yeah but, Alcohol and Tobacco have their own asterisk/exemption spot in the CSA.

So, placing it there next to them – would presumably be much more expedient than attempting to remove it from the CSA entirely.

Simple basic fact checker would eliminate these opinions. If you have an opinion, fine, keep it separate from the replies. There is no special asterisk and expedient is in your head. Truth is all that matters, not opinion or wishful thinking used to scam votes for the Incrementally Retarded profiteers selling pot.

States have already been rejected by Raich v Gonzales. Alcohol and Chemical cigarettes are much more damaging and therefore much more profits treating them. Ganja is so UnFascist it actually takes away profits preventing and potentially curing what fat pharma presently rakes in billions treating. It’s a scam, political placement from Wall St. The masters of Washington DC legislation. Multinational Neocons are both parties the majority continue to believe are somehow separate. The base is all that is different. Meaning the base is either going to hold them accountable as we have done with Obama, or go with the flow as republicans tend to do concerning Ganja. Same with Bernie if the GOP keeps Congress. Treading water, but that is better than drowning. There is no chance of real sanity as long as the moneysluts rule the laws. Profit is the new Mother of Invention.

Some people say, “Amotivational Syndrome”? No, some drug worriers still say bullshit when “Amotivational Syndrome” was rejected in the Jamaican Studies. Amotivational people smoke Ganja, not the reverse. Ganja doesn’t cause “Amotivational Syndrome”.

Reclassification of Controlled Substances: Marijuana, Alcohol, and Tobacco
“The term ‘controlled substance’ means a drug or other substance, or immediate precursor, included in schedule I, II, III, IV, or V of part B of this subchapter. The term does not include distilled spirits, wine, malt beverages, or tobacco, as those terms are defined or used in subtitle E of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986.”

Sorry, but I was suggesting that marijuana could be added to portion of the CSA = where alcohol and tobacco are exempted.

“The term does not include distilled spirits, wine, malt beverages, or tobacco, as those terms are defined or used in subtitle E of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986.”

It would also require the removal of the line from – 801.(7) The United States is a party to the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, 1961, and other international conventions designed to establish effective control over international and domestic traffic in controlled substances.

And possibly some other changes to thr language of the law somewhere?

My point was that we could have marijuana added to the list of things exempted from the CSA – is there a better way – probably so…

Didn’t mean to ruffle your feathers with my comment (and I was kidding about the ‘Easily Occupied’ thing) – sheesh.

That comment was originally much longer when I typed it out. I cut it down to the part I posted, maybe it lost something in the process – IDK?

Please don’t be a single issue voter, cannabis is going to become legal again no matter what, and Bernie is SO bad on so much, otherwise, especially economically. Please do NOT saddle us with a communist as president, the fucking socialist presidents (since Wilson) have been bad enough, we need a laissez-faire president for a change.

Thank you, Windy. It’s about time someone had the guts to stand up and point out that Sanders is exactly like Stalin and would, without question, open a huge chain of gulags to lock up millions of political prisoners. The only smart thing anyone can do is vote once again for the same benevolent 1950s-style capitalists who have never at any time gone out of their way to cause us misery off of which they profit. Or, better yet, vote Libertarian because they don’t have a history of excusing the inexcusable as long as someone profits off it in the name of “liberty”.

Atrocity, I’m hoping you’re using irony here? The gulags have been up and running in America ever since Reagan and then Clinton instituted mass imprisonment for dissidents known as the war on drugs. Sanders is the only serious presidential contender proposing to dismantle mass incarceration of non-violent drug “offenders.” US politics is fascistic enough without the need to make stuff up.

OT because this comment is a couch-worthy takedown of Patrick Kennedy:

So, here comes Drug War, part trois. It seems American officialdom is unable to exist without having a drug war going. Now that the marijuana war is winding down with the drug warriors in retreat, they have drummed up a new hysteria, with new victims, but with the same justifications. This time the drug warriors with all their official apparatus are going after pain patients and leave no stone unturned to make their lives miserable.

The ostensible purpose of the new hysteria and witch hunt is, as always, “to save lives.” In reality,the drug enforcement apparatus seeks a new target, just as it did after Repeal. Then it was marijuana that was declared the culprit that led people, especially “vulnerable children” and “impressionable youth” to perdition, apart from providing employment for the apparatus that had earlier been responsible for the war on alcohol. This time the culprit is the opioid pain killers, the new invented scourge of the land.

There are several advantages to picking on pain patients. They are in the open and can be tracked through their doctors and prescriptions, and they are likely to be older and less connected into subcultures that help gaining access to their medicines. And who really cares if they hurt? Pain is bracing for the soul and should be borne stoically, in conformance with the Puritan ethic that still permeates America. Exceptions can be made for those who are deemed to have “legitimate” pain – but for that one has to practically be at death’s door.

Another advantage to the witch hunt on opioids and their users is that the whole thing can be blamed on the pharmaceutical companies looking for profit. Everybody hates Big Pharma that has price gouged Americans for decades, so there’s an easy target for opprobrium.

And in the end, the drug warriors can go home in the evening feeling fulfilled – another day of good deeds. The patients and sufferers? Their bodies may hurt, but at least their souls are saved.

and

Just look at the arrogance with which this fellow starts his article, “I am a Kennedy …” So what if he was addicted to painkillers? Several of his family members were thoroughly addicted to alcohol, and none less than his grandfather was a rum runner during Prohibition. And now this fellow comes to instruct us? As a pain patient I am worried that these self-appointed society-savers are trying to interfere with my access to the medicine that makes my life bearable. That “a Kennedy” was unable to control himself is certainly no reason why I must be left hurting. The sooner I never hear another squeak from this obnoxious elitist, the better.

Patrick Kennedy is one of two faces of narcissism. He’s the one that’s called “Vulnerability-Sensitivity, associated with introversion, defensiveness, anxiety, and vulnerability to life’s traumas [like addiction], whereas Grandiosity-Exhibitionism [is] related to extraversion, self-assurance, exhibitionism, and aggression [like Kevin]. Three alternative interpretations of these results are considered, and an argument for the distinction between covert and overt narcissism is made.”

“A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.” ~ John F. Kennedy

The DEA has been limiting what doctors can prescribe for a while now. Patients or their pain have no say. Schedule#2 triplicate rox coctails for the precaution of not letting it get into the hands of the un-ill.

For 10 years, I sat on the House Appropriations Committee, overseeing every federal agency charged with addressing this subject. And during much of that time, I was addicted to prescription opiate painkillers myself. I would keep them in an aspirin bottle in my jacket so nobody would think it was strange when I popped one during an appropriations hearing.

So the House Appropriations Committee is no different from a common junkie. Or common junkies have equal qualifications. So for 10 years no one knew or cared Pat was a junkie. So frickin horrible of a disease no one even knows you got it. No one questions your weirdness stupidity because the House Appropriations Committee are all weird and stupid for various reasons. Appropriations out of politics and personal gain or payback and not necessity of the people is pretty weird and stupid.

First clue is why popping aspirin isn’t considered addictive when it claims thousands of lives each year. Doesn’t prevent heart attacks outside of Mad Ave Ad agencies. Special safety caps granny has to get the kids to open. Tree bark? Apparently the pun was how appropriations hearings cause headaches. When they never seem to appropriate enough to fix the potholes and over crowded schools.

The ONDCP and its dollar drain to subterranean entities NIDA and DEA needs eradication and put to work cleaning the environment. Those not willfully destroying peoples lives perpetuating the drug war. They need to be held accountable. For the message to the kids.

The danger in drug doin is becoming professional education depravation. None I say None of the US Med Schools have an Endocannabinoid Science or anyone qualified to teach it. Corporations subsidizing school budgets and pockets with their version of science. White Powders and Big Ag chemicals. History of compromised lies and bartering with complete insanity concerning the Ganjawar.

Politics once again sticks its ugly pointed head into the mix. Much of it is still the Church. Heroin is too addictive, cheap or something or morphine too dangerous a risk to possible death with dignity. Pain is for ridding oneself from all of the sins accumulated during your wicked, heathen, hedonistic lives. A preparation for when you’re in the dirt, decaying.

“Each time a (person) stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others… he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current that sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”
— Robert F. Kennedy

Artvents
10/25/2015 10:42 AM EDT
” Kennedy is a co-founder of Smart Approaches to Marijuana. He realizes that any effort to increase and commercialize use of a drug that is addictive and directly contributes to mental illness will also increase the number of people in need of mental health treatment. Avoiding the need for mental health treatment starts by avoiding addictive substances, including turbo-charged marijuana of today. We are a society that is “swimming in drugs,” according to Robert Whitaker. It is precisely the wrong time to try to legalize marijuana which promoters use as an excuse to replace one addiction with another addiction. The Portman-Whitehouse bill to address addiction should include measures to stop marijuana, too, since most drug addicts (70+% acccording to SAMHSA) begin their illicit drug usage with marijuana. I don’t accept the addictive personality theory, since people who are never warned about addiction are at risk, and the social circumstances, family will contribute to acceptance of substance abuse. Kennedy came from a family where it was accepted.”

“This time the drug warriors with all their official apparatus are going after pain patients and leave no stone unturned to make their lives miserable.”
Truth! Hubby has to be drug tested 4 times a year to keep getting his low dosage hydrocodone, “to make certain you are taking the medication and not diverting it”.

He endured 15 years of random drug tests when he was still working, to make sure he was not using any naughty list drugs on or off the job (a clear unconstitutional violation of his right to self-determination and self-ownership). Now he has to be drug tested to make certain he IS using the hydrocodone, and not taking any other opioids.

He is allergic to most NSAIDS, but a 222, which is aspirin and codeine (sold OTC in Canada and legal to bring a bottle of 50 over the border), helps him with headaches, in a way aspirin alone or acetaminophen does not. However, if they find codeine in the drug test, again, they’ll remove his prescription for hydrocodone which does NOT relieve his headaches. Again a clearly unconstitutional violation of his right to self-ownership and self-determination. He complained about it to the doctor, and the doctor said it is not his policy, it is PeaceHealth’s, and PeaceHealth says it is mandated by the DEA.

It’s not a dangerous drug.
It’s relief.
Talk to me about those who have left the opioid train. I’m one.
I’ll put what little I’ve learned about the medicinal properties of marijuana against any who deny it.
I’ll put those who have been weaned from pharmaceuticals against any who say “It’s not impossible.”
I’ll put my life into helping others who have been told “There’s no help for you.”
There is no cure for that which ails you but I’ll put my life into teaching others not to look for a cure, but to help themselves.

Seems Randy of SAM Oregon is now learning the hardway of what a loose lip is, when he admitted that he was a Police Informant and was bragging about it, I am sorry most Asian groups abide by a code and to be honest if a Asian secret group finds the likes of Randy of SAM Oregon is Police Informant or shill, these kind of people do not last long at all.

It gets better and better. You might recall that when we first learned of him, the proposition was that he snitched on those pizza customers from whom he scented cannabis. Maybe this was in fact the case.

And if it was, then, he may find ‘mixing business with pleasure’ might be rather difficult from now on.

Any former customers of his that ran afoul of the legal system will have reason to look him up, now.

Better idea is going to Pizza Hut in Troutdale in Portland, Oregon and paste the following in the shop window:

POLICE INFORMANT OR SHILL KNOWN AS RANDY PHILBRICK WORKS HERE

I now think Project SAM is nothing more than a group of Police Informants or Shills or Coercive Troubled Teen Industry Psychopaths who just either want to lock up Cannabis users or abuse them

As for Randy Philbrick, I have no room for Police Informants/Shills or snitches, in a Asian society, be it the triads or yakuza they follow a code and if they find the likes of Randy Philbrick being a Police Informant or Shill, they don’t last very long and there is a old saying when it comes to this “The knife enters the heart”

Are there people that actually recall what the pizza guy looks like much less his name? If he delivered pizza in Oregon would the police have even responded since under an ounce was a civil matter?

Back in the day when I was delivering pizza one idiot opened the door with at least a 1/2 pound and a set of triple beams sitting in plain sight on the coffee table. He didn’t even offer. I also found a bag with around 10 grams sitting by the driveway in a customer’s yard. But quite frankly it wasn’t a frequent event. Nude or nearly nude customers were more frequent although still very rare. Not all female and only one which I’d could have better lived without that imagery in my mind. But they all did tip very well. Curse you kaptin for stirring up the memory of the one fat man. 400 lbs if he was an ounce and I’ll spare everyone the gory details.

As to whether anyone remembers him or not, it isn’t all that important. That they’d possibly recall him after having their memories jogged in that fashion, is.

Our opposition uses our money against us, via taxes and agency budgets and salaries for those intent upon harming us. The majority of these low-level types are more likely mercs than missionaries. So…you have to wonder what else ol’ Randy’s getting from this, besides schadenfreude. Most of them are like Mencken said, too cowardly to face those they’ve hurt, hiding behind organizations and their resources. And all too often, the latter is provided by us.

Identifying him as someone who identifies himself as a snitch turns that around, and makes it as personal as we can possibly make it.

Throw your hat in the ring with murderers and child torturers, and you can share their fate.

When support for re-legalization went past 50% in our favor, the political and social stick, the one with a point on one end and a club on the other, the one prohibs have been beating us with for 40 years, switched hands from theirs to ours. They still think they’re holding it.

The findings of this study contrast with National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) data suggesting that the prevalence of marijuana use increased only 12% from 2002 to 2012 and that the prevalence of marijuana use disorders did not increase (1.6% in 2002 and 1.5% in 2012).

Immediately after that text the researchers explained why they believed that the NSDUH results should be discounted as inaccurate.

Not very far in the past the Rocky Mountain HIDTA published its statistical manifesto of the impact of legal cannabis in Colorado. That report also detailed what was wrong with the statistics they rejected and why they thought that the NSDUH was accurate.

yes and heroin maintenance please. but not only that, really guys i been thinking alot lately about MDMA. I dont think its the solution for everybody for sure, but, I gotta say, honestly, now bear in mind from age 7 to early 20’s I have done every single anti depressant, anti psychotic, anti convulsant, etc. etc. and when I say every one I swear it because I’ve seen a several page list of all the categories and all the drugs from prozac to lyrica to depakote etc. etc. etc. and literally i have done them all, many more than once, always for more than just a few months and often in conjunction with each other. Actually

the list i saw was in a book called “The Opiate Cure” by Robert Cochran. I highly recommend this book. This guy was a pain management doctor. In prior years he wrote some books that werent glowing reviews about opiates but as time went on he changed and his book the Opiate Cure he basically said that he believed high doses of real opiates (ie Hydrocodone, Oxy, Morphine, etc) could cure bi polar disorder and other depression issues. In his book he talks about arguing with a pharmacist who refused to process a prescription for one of his patients that was on and this is no exageration, 1,000 mgs of Oxycodone a day. Yes, everybodies tolerance is different but the idea that the opiate user “never gets enough” and is an “Addict” who will “always want more” is 12 step BS at its worst. The fact is, if you look at the studies for heroin maintenance you’ll find the average user is satisfied at 500mg of heroin a day.

On a side note, years ago I had actually saved up alot of money because I was going to go to Tennesse to see the author of that book and have him save my life, it was a process that actually began exactly the day of the infamous Hurricane Sandy. I was almost ready that February when I came to be stunned that the man was forced to retire when TN changed its opiate prescribing laws. Heartbreaking!

BUT yea so MDMA, I understand it was originally an anti depressant. I have to say, I really think for me and a certain category of hardcore heroin user, MDMA may be an effective alternative. It may sound unbelievable to some but I honestly, if a doctor came up to me and said listen if you’re serious about MDMA and giving it a shot (heh heh heh no pun intended) I’ll prescribe it to you and we’ll see what happens but you gotta get clean, I’ll tell you what I swear I’d do it I’d give it a true try and I’d go through 2 months of savage withdrawal.

Some years ago, maybe 4 I had read about a woman who had been given approval to prescribe MDMA. Julie Holland was her name/is her name. She even wrote a book. Weekends at Bellevue which was a glorified dramatic doctor book. Anyway though she had been given permission to prescribe MDMA. This had something to do with treating women suffering from PTSD as a result of child birth.

I had made arrangements to make an appointment with her. It was going to be expensive too. So a few days before the appointment I had read an interview where she discussed heroin use and users and she had some extremely negative/nasty/ignorant things to say about us and I effectively cancelled the appointment though I didnt tell her why really just incase ever I needed to speak to her again. BUT! I want to tell you, people who looked at her as someone doing good for the cause, I can’t say that’s true because she wasn’t so much for prescribing MDMA as an effective anti depressant. What I read was that she thought for people with trauma and PTSD it could be helpful therapy if MDMA is taken 1x or MAYBE 2x in the presence of a doctor like once or twice in the persons life. LOL! No, make no mistake, the way I see it, if MDMA has an active duration of 4 hours then the prescribing method NEEDS to be 8am-12pm 1 dose. 12-4pm dose #2. 4pm-8pm dose #3. 8pm- dose #4. So yes 4 times a day EVERYDAY not once or twice in my life in a therapists presence LOL.

She may be incorrect about heroin users, but she’s likely correct about MDMA. MDMA allows one insights into one’s own and other’s personalities and actions, but more than anything else, it causes acceptance of one’s faults as well as acceptance of the faults of others. The insights and acceptance triggered by this drug might very well help addicts as well as trauma patients in one or two sessions with a therapist.

She’s hardly in the book since she rounded up about 50-or-so M.D.s and PhDs doing cannabis research to write most of the chapters. What I wanted you to know about her is that she’s donating ALL THE MONEY from “The Pot Book” to cannabis research.

I think that shows a good heart and that’s she’s likely not a total dick even if she’s not a fan of Herr Owen’s tribe and habits.

Hey CJ… if you happen to run into some older Yippies still around NYC, “Pieman” who was connected with Dana Beal’s Cures Not Wars and Ibogaine treatments. Dana was busted in the Midwest last I’ve heard. I did a few hospice cases in the 90’s with someone who went to the SA jungles for Ayahuasca to quit cigarettes. Said it was a pretty heavy cleansing ritual before the actual trip. Shocks the mindset out of addiction. Silicone-heads are tripping for production I’ve read. Ganja always rounds of any sharp edges. Be Well…

you might find these of interest.

A new way to heal MDMAMultidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies
The early returns are more than positive. Studies are showing MDMA several times more effective than either Zoloft or Paxil at treating PTSD.

“Chang-Guo Zhan, Ph.D., a professor, and Fang Zheng, Ph.D., an associate professor at the College of Pharmacy at the University of Kentucky”, in conjunction with the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS), are to be congratulated for having developed an enzyme therapy as a proof of concept for treatment of cocaine overdoses.

This is the type of research the NIDA could be funding, but doesn’t, because the NIDA is not a humanitarian organization. Rather, the (N)ationalist (I)nquisitorial (D)rug (A)utocracy is committed to the ideal that cocaine and other drug consumers should die, or rot in jail.

“NIH funding priorities in addiction research have resulted in under-investment in drug policy evaluation, a weakness that the National Academy of Science forcefully pointed out in 2001.7 As a result, scarce NIDA-funded institutional expertise is available to assess the effects of the cannabis policy experiments underway in the US states of Alaska, Colorado, Oregon, and Washington State.”

It’s amazing how much good news is coming from the Lancet. Have they recently reconsidered their philosophy of foaming at the mouth prohibitionism? Hey, there’s plenty of room on the bandwagon. That’s my motto.

MIAMI, FL and CALI, COLOMBIA, Oct 29, 2015 (Marketwired via COMTEX) — New Colombia Resources, Inc. (otc pink:NEWC) (“New Colombia” or the “Company”), a U.S. company with specialty metallurgical coal, medical marijuana, and hemp assets, is pleased to announce the decision of Colombia’s Health Minister to allow for the manufacture and sale of medical marijuana products.

Health Minister Alejandro Gaviria stated he is working on a decree to allow for the commercialization of medical cannabis products that would legalize the elaboration and sale of phytotherapeutic products or herbal medicines that contain cannabis. “The decree is about creating the possibility to form an Agro business that sells legal marijuana products, for example ointments, creams and oils…” stated the Minister. He went on to comment that some of these products are already legally being sold.

SPARKS, Nev. — Donald Trump softened his tone on marijuana legalization on Thursday, saying at a political rally that states should be allowed to legalize marijuana if they chose to do so. Trump reaffirmed that he supports making medical marijuana available to patients who are very sick.

“In terms of marijuana and legalization, I think that should be a state issue, state-by-state,” Trump said while taking a handful of questions during a political rally at a casino outside Reno on Thursday afternoon.
/snip/

It’s obvious that when he learned of my investigation into the nationality of his hair he knew that I would be like a pit bull mauling a little girl until I got him disqualified. So he decided that he needed to pay me off or face the ignominy of certain defeat. Well he is a very smart business man and I’m a cheap date. All I need to know is where to send the receipt.

Some folks ARE listening – They removed both fingers from their ears, uncovered their eyes, and paid attention to the News. (And probably recent polling

One thing Trump & Sanders have both started doing more of, and become better at = their “political homework”.

I bet Trump heard and/or saw Sanders go *just shy* of “All-In” on marijuana legalization at George Mason University – basically remove the Federal laws, and let the various Puritanical States/Localities ban it at the local level.

I suspect more than a few Politicians (out campaigning) found out just how “HUGE” the Demographic that supports legalization really is!

Maybe they didn’t believe the level of, or degree to which we harassed the crap outta Obama on this in 2008, 2009, 2012, 2013 and practically every time he had any sort of “town hall”, or open questions from the general public.

The White House – “We The People” petion site, and all of the stuff the couch regulars already knew… But this very much appears like they’re learning all this for themselves – maybe from their staffers?

And to be fair, I’m kinda glad Barry didn’t make any official attempt to change the law on it – Instead, acknowledging “its a legitimate argument”, or stating his belief of the fact that – “it’s less harmful than alcohol”, Etc.
(Everything which Kev-Kev & friends cried about…)

And he let public opinion gain momentum that will outlast his 2nd term. It’s been torturous for some of us…
But, As I’ve often said – I doubt the left & right can agree on pizza toppings until Barry is gone. Sad yes, but likely true.

I think we might even get Hillary to Follow Bernie to the Left on this subject – as she’s done on a couple things lately.

Seriously, who’s gonna risk losing the Election because they’re worried about senior citizens opposing this? If the turnout is mostly old folks 65+ then Republicans are gonna win anyway.

But, Promising and/or swearing to vocally and unapologetically support this issue in early 2017 = ASAP.
Will (all recent experience shows) bring out the ‘Youth Vote’ = something both parties have to at least attempt to accomplish if they want to continue existing as a Political Party!

This is now a *single-issue* over which you can only lose support by opposing it, people will still vote against gun control, But not against marijuana legalization… I fully both ‘Populist Candidates’ now realize this as fact.

P.S. I just noticed the caption under the picture – he signs and throws back a Tie – to someone in “The Nugget” Convention Center!

It is absurd that the Federal Government still classifies cannabis as a Schedule I substance along with Heroin. It is classified in a more dangerous category than Cocaine, Morphine, Opium and Meth. The three required criteria for Schedule I classification are:

1) The drug or other substance has a high potential for abuse.

The dependence rate of cannabis is the lowest of common legal drugs including tobacco, caffeine, alcohol, and many prescription drugs. More important, cannabis does not cause the kind of dependence that we typically associate with the term, like that of alcohol or heroin. It is more similar to that of caffeine, with less symptoms. Cannabis dependence, in the very few who develop it, is relatively mild, and usually not a significant issue or something that requires treatment, unless of course it is court ordered. [Catherine et al. 2011; Lopez-Quintero et al. 2011; Joy et al. 1999; Anthony et al. 1994;]

2) The drug or other substance has no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States.

Cannabis has been used as medicine for thousands of years. Despite great difficulty in conducting medical cannabis research, the medicinal efficacy of cannabis is supported by the highest quality evidence. [Hill. 2015] Already 76% of doctors accept using cannabis to treat medical conditions even though it is still illegal in most places. [Adler and Colbert. 2013]. Cannabis is able to treat a wide range of disease, including mood and anxiety disorders, movement disorders such as Parkinson’s and Huntington’s disease, neuropathic pain, multiple sclerosis and spinal cord injury, to cancer, atherosclerosis, myocardial infarction, stroke, hypertension, glaucoma, obesity/metabolic syndrome, and osteoporosis, to name just a few. Cannabis is able to do this partially through its action on the newly discovered (thanks to cannabis) endocannabinoid system and the receptors CB1 and CB2 which are found throughout the body. [Pacher et al. 2006; Pamplona 2012; Grotenhermen & Müller-Vahl 2012].

3) There is a lack of accepted safety for use of the drug or other substance under medical supervision.

On September 6, 1988, after two years of hearings on cannabis rescheduling, DEA Administrative Law Judge Francis L. Young concluded that:

“Marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man…. Marijuana has been accepted as capable of relieving distress of great numbers of very ill people, and doing so with safety under medical supervision. It would be unreasonable, arbitrary and capricious for DEA to continue to stand between those sufferers and the benefits of this substance in light of the evidence in this record.”

Relatively speaking cannabis is a safe drug [Iversen L. 2005]. The evidence is is clear, cannabis does not belong in Schedule I [Grant et al. 2012]. It does not meet any one of the three required criteria.

Please help bring end to this senseless prohibition. The organizations below fight every day to bring us sensible cannabis policies. Help them fight by joining their mailing lists, signing their petitions and writing your legislators when they call for it:

Devon, well-written comment. The DEA has ADDED an additional requirement that isn’t a part of the original deal.

That is, they expect cannabis medicines to be “standardized-dosages.” This add-on makes herbal cannabis a complete no-go. Can’t have 18% THC in one batch and 19% in the next because apparently Big Pharma angels won’t get their wings or some stupid shite.

Not sure about the legal weight of their argument, but currently that’s what they’re pushing.

Devon, the CSA and its international variants have nothing whatsoever to do with the danger of particular drugs. The CSA is designed to-

1. Force people who happen to use a psychoactive substance other than alcohol, tobacco and caffeine to obtain their substance from a black market.

2. Allow the oppression of these people, including their fining and imprisonment etc.

Heroin is not an inherently dangerous drug. It is just a delivery system for morphine. It does not stop people breathing. Its worst side effect is constipation. Heroin was used worldwide as a way of administering morphine until the US had it largely prohibited. Not due to science, but due to setting up the human rights abuse commonly referred to as the “War on Drugs”. In short Devon, the CSA schedules have nothing to do with the danger of particular drugs, they are all about underpinning a massive human rights abuse and cynical oppression of a minority (those who use drugs other than the three stated previously) for purely economic and political reasons.

The key to understanding this is to acknowledge that the drugs of the majority (alcohol, tobacco and caffeine) have exemptions. Two of these are the most dangerous drugs in existence.

Devon, Ridiculous doesn’t even come close. Hemp is also a schedule#1 controlled substance the same as heroin and it is non psychoactive. My blue jeans are considered more dangerous than meth. The CSA listed cannabis as a #1 substance to the objections of the AMA, before they became a subsidiary of Fat Pharma. Plus it was supposed to be on a temporary basis until the Shafer Commission report came out. When it did Nixon simply disregarded it the same as the HHS is presently still holding the 1999 IOM report hostage before the FDA can start testing.

As it stands History repeats and no one is in the watchtower to stop it. Corporate puppets in government legislating for profit over necessity of the people. All while the media is condemning Nixon for a two bit break in that amounted to nothing. They didn’t print a word about the CSA listing cannabis. Or that the Marihuana Tax Act was over turned in 69. Or even Nixon’s treason sabotaging the Paris Peace Talks. Never questioned Ford banning medicinal research after discovering by mistake that it shrank tumors in 74. Or Reagans Monkey Tests used as evidence the same as the drug worriers do today.

History keeps repeating itself the same as when Rockefeller and Hearst eliminated Ford’s fleet of ethanol cars from the ground up with the 18th amendment. Then fought for repealing it after the fossil fools service stations were set up. Before booze prohibition farmers distilled their own tractor fuel and after to this very day, they have to buy gasoline or crude oil diesel, previously made from veggie oil. Al Capon was a red herring making headlines the same as today with Mexican Cartels.

The Marihuana Tax Act was another Historical red herring to eliminate Hemp and then Nixon eliminating competition for Fat Pharma. All sold to the public as a safety concern while the same Corporatists put nuke plants over fault lines they are fracking. Nothing is what it says it is.

The entire CSA needs eliminated as well as punishment for doing substances. There are laws on the books concerning abuse and victims rights. It shouldn’t matter how you harm someone. Drunk or straight reckless driving is the same results. Punishment profits the prisons and politicians collecting fines but does little to making actual change for the better.

A good example how fucked up it is would be the BP oil spill. Instead of using every resource to clean it up. The punishment caused it to be dispersed. Fines on collected barrels of oil prevented Shell from assisting with their equipment and caused implementing dispersants to only break up and sink the oil, not remove it. So it continues to damage wetlands and tourism. The politicians collected $100k per barrel, BP got off light and the people are paying for it.

Same with Prohibition getting politicians fines and private tax paid prisons profits. It eliminates competition for 50,000 products presently made with crude plastic, trees, poison cotton or crude polyester. Pills over doobies. Steel over Fiber. Just the business of fascism.

Actually, Barney Frank and Rand Paul introduced legislation in 2011 to remove cannabis from the CSA schedules completely, which is the crux of what Bernie is proposing. I suspect Bernie’s legislation may go a bit further than that 2011 legislation, but it is not like this is something that has not been proposed in Congress before. And Bernie did NOT sign onto that legislation in 2011, either, for whatever reason.

Bernie has been in federal office as an independent for 24 years. He’s 74 years old. It is about fricking time he came around to this position. This is probably the best hope he has of defeating Hillary’s machine in the primaries, and even so, Bernie is a major long shot to win the Democrat’s nomination. Popularity phone polls are meaningless at this point. Boots on the ground is what it takes to win primaries and caucuses and conventions and precinct delegates and the like, which is our messed up “democracy” for Presidential primaries.

Then if Bernie does pull it off, he’ll have the monumental task of convincing moderate and independent voters that all socialists are not bad and that he isn’t a bad socialist. 50% of voters say they would not vote a socialist. 40% of voters say they would not vote for an atheist. This stance on cannabis may help him some in the primary, but the general election will be another beast entirely.

So then it is Hillary, versus tweedle-dum next November, whoop-de-freakin’-doo. Well past time to follow Canada and England and the rest of the democratic world, and start sharing political power with more than just the two evil old parties that have hindered progress here while the rest of the world is catching up with us.

Actually, no, you said something quite different; you slagged Bernie Sanders, whereas Peoria Dude listed the problems Bernie faces, and that there is a need for alternatives to the two party system. Not the same at all. That is why you received down votes and PD received up votes. His comments are constructive.

Quite well, in fact, one we called Palouse (because we had no idea what the real name of the clones were) is excellent and though it developed a little bit of mold (black in color, never seen that before) on two stems, it never was able to reach any bud and the bud was ready for harvest so we harvested, even before full curing it was kickass. The other plants were Obama Kush and they are also kickass, got a smidgen of powdery mildew on some lower leaves but again ready for harvest so … It’s all curing in jars now.
As for the rest of my gardening, my new (this summer) perennials have settled in and are STILL blooming, as soon as it quits raining, I’ve got tulips, lilies and daylilies to put in the ground, some weeds to pull, and get those beds ready for winter. The fruits of our labor in the berry/veggie garden are in the freezer and it has been prepared for winter, too. Got to clear out the pots from the greenhouse to make room for my tender plants in containers, too, but I can do that even in the rain.

There is a LOT of back up to what I said, I just chose not to list a bunch of links to it. I expected those who hang out here to be open minded enough to go research what I wrote to see if it were true and accept it when they discovered it was, not put on blinders and ignore it. Sorry to discover I was wrong.

But it is not like this is something that has not been proposed in Congress before…

Nope, only incrementalism bills…

They’re all still pandering to Prohibitionists… Politics, Better than Nothing? Good rather than the GOPopular bad. Insane, but less than Walters. No time for reality, take what you can get while the getn’s good. Bernie’s says remove it. Bernie is the best person for the job, Probably struggle against the Bush machine but he has Bill Gates backing him now. Many of his platform issues are already being added to Hilary’s list. Prison reform and state experiment crap.

It’s a non issue. The infrastructure is corrupted by Neocons. It’s the base who can hold them accountable, to a point. Obama has never made it so civilized in some areas. By doing nothing. After lots of bitching by voters to Congress. Totally different scene when the voters support the prohibitionists and even want more bloodshed. Wasting votes on idealism does harm in reality.

June 23, 2011
Actually, Barney Frank and Rand Paul introduced legislation in 2011 to allow states to legalize marijuana within their own borders.

February 27, 2011
U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass. told the state’s first Maine Medical Marijuana Expo that current laws against marijuana use are expensive, are applied unevenly and ought to be repealed.

July 14, 2009Personal Use of Marijuana by Responsible Adults Act of 2009
Status: Died in a previous Congress
To eliminate most Federal penalties for possession of marijuana for personal use, and for other purposes.
Deems the possession of 100 grams or less of marijuana as personal use (one ounce or less for a not-for-profit transfer between adults).

June 22, 2009
Barney Frank Introduces two pieces of Marijuana Legislation
The first would change federal law to allow states to experiment with medical marijuana without interference from Washington. And the second would drastically reduce federal penalties for “personal possession” of marijuana.

April 03, 2008Barney Frank: My Pot Bill Lives
The States’ Rights to Medical Marijuana Act
I agree with the editorial in favor of changing the federal law in order to protect patients in states that have permitted marijuana for medical use. I have in fact introduced that very legislation in every year since 1997.

March 22, 2008
Barney Frank Calls For Decriminalizing of MJ

July 24, 2002
Barney Frank Gets Help from Former Reagan Aide in his campaign to lift the federal prohibition so states could decide the issue.

December 13, 1999Rep Barney Frank Not Necessarily For Legalization
I was very explicit in my talk that I have not called for legalization of any drug that is currently illegal, including marijuana.

A Frisian man has been found guilty of cultivating marijuana by the appeal court in Leeuwarden but will not be punished because he had done all he could to ensure a safe, legal supply to licenced coffee shops.

Doede de Jong, who is 66, was sentenced to two months in jail by a lower court and the public prosecution department called for a €230,000 fine on appeal. Despite finding De Jong guilty on all counts, the appeal court judges said he had grown the marijuana plants in the open air, using organic pesticides, the NRC reports. ‘There was no question of fire safety issues or electricity theft,’ the court said. Nor was De Jong involved with criminals who produce cannabis.

I applaud Sanders where he identifies violations of the non-aggression principle, or at least where he may identify the bad effects of violating the NAP, as for pot prohibition. But where he glosses over his pet and favorite initiations of government violence, there he can take a hike.

But that’s the whole game, isn’t it? The game seems to be to get people to agree to some mandate, enforcement, law, ordinance, rule, force, agency, department, or regulation – to be used only of course on some bad other, but which is then turned back around on to those tricked into it.

The non-aggression principle is a subset of the Golden Rule, by the way. Why is it that people can get so very concerned about newly minted rules which are made up by politicians and bureaucrats, yet strive so studiously to ignore the golden rule?